GE Renewable Energy will supply and integrate 100MW battery storage – called the Reservoir - into the 200MW Solar River PV project in South Australia to form one of the world’s largest grid-scale hybrid renewable projects.

“The Solar River Project will be a flagship for the renewable energy industry and for GE’s role in building out Renewable Hybrid plants,”said Prakash Chandra, renewable hybrids chief executive at GE Renewable Energy.

“Hybrid solutions have become a reality, driven by the demand for reliable and dispatchable renewable energy, which we can integrate using our proprietary controls technology to optimize asset and customer outcomes .”

The unit will consist of a 3-hours battery storage system, delivering almost 300 megawatt hours in storage capacity, which could transfer up to 400MWh of electricity per day, making it one of the largest batteries in the Southern Hemisphere.

The South Australia electricity grid has one of the peakiest loads in the world, and the battery energy storage system can allow the plant to deliver firm generation and assist in smoothing peaks, contributing to a more stable network for years to come, GE RE explains.

The storage system is designed to capture the energy produced by the solar sources, for use in time of power demand, which can increase the availability of the plant and enable optimal use of the solar PVs.

A first stage of the Solar River Project is slated to generate first energy in early 2021.